LeasePlan sets Amsterdam stock exchange launch in June

LeasePlan, one of the world’s largest car leasing companies, is planning to launch on the Amsterdam stock exchange in June, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday, quoting chief executive Tex Gunning.

LeasePlan, now based in the prime Amsterdam Zuidas business district, said last summer that it was looking at an IPO to enable shareholders to cash in their interests, the paper said.

The company, which has a fleet of 1.7 million cars, was acquired in the beginning of 2016 for €3.7bn from Volkswagen and German banker Friedrich von Metzler.

The buyers were a consortium made up of Dutch healthcare pension fund PGGM , Danish pension fund ATP, the state sovereign funds of Abu Dhabi (Adia) and Singapore (GIC), private equity house TDR Capital and merchant bank Goldman Sachs.

LeasePlan booked net profit 17% higher at €531.6m on turnover of €9.4bn in 2017. The company is also undergoing a wide-ranging reorganisation designed to trim costs and separate country divisions have been merged and integrated for economy of scale.

LeasePlan has set up an online platform CarNext which will sell its leased cars on to the second-hand market in Europe. Until now, LeasePlan has sold cars three or four years old in bulk to middlemen. This new sales channel is expected to result in gains of €90m.

Any change in ownership of LeasePlan would require the approval of the Dutch central bank DNB because LeasePlan is not only a leasing company but also has a banking licence. The DNB forced the present owners to use less borrowed money for the recent transaction.